Saturday, August 04, 2007

Mastermind of Golden Mosque Bombing and 12 Other AQ Leaders killed in Iraq

Iraqi security forces said today that a joint attack with U.S. forces earlier this week killed the mastermind of a bombing at Samarra's Golden Mosque in February 2006 that sparked sectarian violence across the country.

Haytham Badri, who also used the last name Sabi, was killed Thursday when his car caught fire as he fled a U.S. air assault on his home. Police said he had been hiding there with a group of armed men in the Banat Hassan area of eastern Samarra, about 65 miles north of the capital.

Badri's cousin, who spoke on condition he not be further identified, said in an interview that the dead man's father and brother later identified his body.

Badri, field commander in Samarra for the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq, was wanted in connection with the mosque bombing and the killing of Al Arabiya television correspondent Atwar Bahjat and two co-workers, who were kidnapped while covering the bombing and later shot.

"We know a lot about him. He was one of the main leaders of Al Qaeda in Iraq," Mowaffak Rubaie, Iraq's national security advisor, said of Badri. Rubaie said Badri was "the main culprit" in the mosque bombing but that he could not confirm the report of Badri's death.

The U.S.-Iraqi joint attack also killed a dozen other insurgents, police said. Eighty-eight more were arrested, including foreign fighters from Afghanistan, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Elsewhere in Samarra, a man described as the local administrative commander of the militant group also was detained, police said.

In a statement, the U.S. military confirmed that Badri had been killed by U.S. forces Thursday. The U.S. military said Badri was responsible for an attack on the Golden Mosque in June, which destroyed its minarets, but did not mention the February 2006 bombing.